Simple(?) sync question

Timmaehi

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Feb 25, 2012
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Hi there,

Been looking for assurance on some sync questions, which I thought would be quite common, but after a search of the forums I can't find the right answers.

My situation: I bought my friend's old iPhone 3G running 4.2.1. I paid for it to be jb/unlocked (I know, I know, should've done it myself but I'm a lame n00b and was in a massive rush) and it now has Cydia 1.1.3. Since then I've been using it fine and only just got home from travel & want to be able to sync it using iTunes 10.5.2 - from what I read on these forums, I should be able to do that and not 'break the jailbreak'.

However, when I go to sync I get two pop-ups.

1) "The iPhone ?xxxx? is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library? An iPhone can be synced with only one iTunes library at a time. Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPhone with the contents of this iTunes library." - this one seems pretty clear I'm gonna lose everything? :-( ... any workarounds?

(this one is when I try to sync the Address Book) 2) "The information on the iPhone ?Jimbo? is synced with another user account. Do you want to sync this iPhone with the information from this user account instead? ?Merge Info? merges the information on this iPhone with the information from this user account. ?Replace Info? replaces the information on this iPhone with the information from this user account."

FWIW the computer has not been synced with any other iPhones.

I'm scared, people! I need to know what's going to happen to the following, or tips on how to save them:

- The unlock/jb itself will be fine, right?
- Address Book (I want my laptop AB to stay unharmed, and there are maybe 10 out of 300 contacts on the iPhone I want to keep - others are my friend's old contacts)
- Apps (all legit, no Installous)
- Text/SMS records
- Notes

I guess on top of the guidance whether these will be affected, it'd be nice to know how to back 'em all up for peace of mind, if that's possible.

Really appreciate any help y'all can give me with this essay.

Respect,
J
 

Tony the Tiger

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Dec 8, 2011
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Syncing won't affect the jailbreak unless you restore or update your iPhone.

If those 10 contacts are on storage on your iTunes library then it'll stay on your iPhone.

It will affect all apps since it was from your friend's iTunes account and not yours, music and video are affected as well.

I don't think it will affect your text messages.

For notes, I'm not completely sure.

So I would go ahead and sync the iPhone, you never know when you need a backup.
 
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Timmaehi

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Cheers Tony.

Is there any way to backup the apps/texts/notes other than through the syncing process?

So I could back 'em up, sync, (possibly) lose everything then reload them up?
 

3cit

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Cheers Tony.

Is there any way to backup the apps/texts/notes other than through the syncing process?

So I could back 'em up, sync, (possibly) lose everything then reload them up?
sorry dude, no dice
the texts and notes will be fine.
the applications will be gone, as will the songs, books, tones... anything that has been "purchased"
even free applications will be lost. there is no way around this
 

Timmaehi

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Damn. Cheers though, appreciate it.

Just to make sure, the jb/unlock/Cydia well be left unharmed, right?

And one extra question if anyone's feeling super helpful. I have iPhone backups from an old 3G I owned still on my hard drive. Is there a way to get all that info on to the new phone?
 

3cit

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Damn. Cheers though, appreciate it.

Just to make sure, the jb/unlock/Cydia well be left unharmed, right?

And one extra question if anyone's feeling super helpful. I have iPhone backups from an old 3G I owned still on my hard drive. Is there a way to get all that info on to the new phone?

Ummmmmm I don't know about the unlock....
I have never been to informed on the unlocking level, so wait for someone who definitely knows...
And I dont think having backups will do any good, it'll just sync old text messages and contacts, but will use the current iTunes library for songs apps etc...
 

Timmaehi

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And I dont think having backups will do any good, it'll just sync old text messages and contacts,

But I'd quite like that. Do you know if it'll merge the old texts in with the new phone or replace the new ones?

Yep, hopefully someone can let me know about the unlock.
 

Timmaehi

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Just in case anyone strikes the same issue as me, thought I'd let you know how it went. I did it in stages. First, using iTunes 10.1 restored from backup:

- I emailed my entire WhatsApp history to myself... this was NOT necessary and a really long/painful process
- Chose to sync notes (left 'replace on iPhone' unchecked)
- Pop up warning saying I would be 'Erasing and syncing' the phone
- Pop up warning that the phone was synced with another User Account - did I want to replace info?
- After agreeing, both my notes and contacts were deleted - both initially did NOT transfer from the Mac with regular sync
- checked the 'replace with info from computer' box, this corrected notes problem
- contacts on my Mac address book did NOT move over to the iPhone, even with replace box checked

- Transferred Purchases from phone apps to computer, warning 'cannot transfer as apps are already authorized with other iTunes user account' and didn't transfer - simply authorized, tried again and success
- Synced apps - 'All existing apps and data will be deleted' warning (even after saying OK to this, you can revert!)

- tried latest iTunes (10.5.1) to sort Contacts issue (still not on phone) - fail
- DISABLED iCloud Contacts syncing luckily I'd exported a backup of my Address Book - disabling Sync deleted the Address Book from both iCloud and my local computer. This seems crazy.

To cut a long story short I had to play around with the Address Book, reimport my contacts to the Mac address book, keep iCloud Contacts syncing OFF, and then replace contents of the phone again. Eventually it worked.

Through all of this:

TEXT MESSAGES - remained intact
PHOTOS - remained intact (although I'd already d/led the photos to Mac via Image Capt so maybe if the folder had been empty I would've lost those pics
APPS - remained intact
MUSIC - gone
MOVIES - gone
MAIL SETTINGS - remained intact